June 7, 2020 (Tony Cartalucci - ATN) - Thailand's opposition is particularly desperate. Having lost elections in 2019 and having failed to translate its manufactured online presence into even a modest protest in the streets - it has tried to leverage anything and everything to stir emotions and place pressure on the government.
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| If Thailand's opposition really cared about Wanchalearm Satsaksit, they have failed to show it as they shamelessly rush to exploit his disappearance in every conceivable way. |
They do this against a backdrop of waning US power in Asia-Pacific - which has in turn translated into increasingly ineffective regime-change activities of which this opposition is a key part.
Wanchalearm Satsaksit - a long-forgotten "activist" who fled to and has lived in Cambodia for years - now is suddenly reported as "missing." His alleged "abduction" is being immediately leveraged by the opposition to place pressure on both the Thai and Cambodian governments alongside an eager Western media who wasted no time inventing conspiracy theories about the alleged incident.
Channeling US protests over the tragic death of George Floyd - the BBC and US State Department-funded Prachatai have even claimed - without evidence - his last known words were coincidentally "I can't breath."
And before any facts at all emerge, Thailand's opposition has already attempted to stage several protests to take advantage of any social momentum the disappearance might create - with protests literally carrying signs written in English saying "I can't breath."
Not the First Politically-Convenient "Disappearance"
This isn't the first time forgotten forgotten "activists" have turned up "missing." Suspiciously - at various other low points for Thailand's opposition - activist hiding abroad have been reported "missing," "abducted," and even "murdered."
The incidents take place far beyond Thailand's ability to investigate and far beyond anything resembling verifiable evidence.
But that doesn't stop politically-motivated, foreign-funded fronts like Human Rights Watch or Thai Lawyers for Human Rights from immediately pouncing on such incidents in hopes of triggering protests and smearing the sitting Thai government - and in this case also the increasingly China-friendly Cambodian government.
Human Rights Watch's Brad Adams eagerly set the stage for placing pressure on Cambodia over what is in all likelihood an unsolvable case:
The Cambodian government is obligated to find out what happened to Wanchalearm, who was taken away at gunpoint in Phnom Penh, and ensure he is safe.Wanchalearm Satsaksit was not significant even at the height of his "activism," and the movement he himself belongs to has more recently found itself plumbing new depths of irrelevance.
Foreign governments and donors should press the Cambodian government to take all necessary measures to find Wanchalearm or risk being complicit in his abduction.
His disappearance serves no conceivable motivation for the current government - the current government having beaten the opposition at the polls and now sitting back while street protests continuously fail to materialize. Why would the government commit to an action that might have some hope - however remote - of igniting public outrage or leading to wider street protests?
As to why the opposition itself would have Wanchalearm Satsaksit disappear - the motivation is absolutely clear. Such a move helps in stirring up outrage and possible protests the dissolution of US-backed billionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit's Future Forward Party failed to create.
As to whether or not the opposition is capable of committing violence to achieve its goals one only needs to look to widespread violence used in 2010 by war weapon-wielding terrorists whom the opposition still glosses over mentioning during their annual events blaming the army for shooting back and eventually restoring order - but not before the opposition carried out city-wide violence - including arson and the killing of police, soldiers, and by-standers - costing billions in damages and leaving nearly 100 dead.
If the opposition Wanchalearm Satsaksit belongs to is capable of holding a whole city hostage and to this day remaining unrepentant - the opposition is surely capable of turning a living has-been activist into a dead and much more useful martyr.
This says nothing of what the Thai opposition's US sponsors are capable of doing - from street violence now unfolding within their own borders to multiple US wars of aggression still raging around the planet.
